Pruning Roses, Garden Paradise & Schizandra

Those of you who have read The Lazy Raw Foodist’s Guide know I’m not too much of a gardener. LOL, I rarely even grow my own sprouts! But this doesn’t mean I don’t have great admiration for those who do. In particular, I have always wanted a rose garden. My maternal grandmother lived in Irvine, CA for most of my youth, and she had the most beautiful roses in full bloom on her patio. A former opera singer, she would sing her arias while pruning away, offering me, her sixteen year old granddaughter, mimosas and chocolate for breakfast. In retrospect, Gramma Irene was a pretty cool grandma!

My grandmother has since moved somewhere that maintains the rose gardens for her, but she still has lovely rose pillows and garden paintings in her apartment. When Stephen and I moved to our new home in Sonoma County, one of the first things I noticed was a woman singing arias while she gardened. It totally reminded me of my grandma! As things turned out, we have our own rose bushes, too, many of which needed pruning. I finally went outside today with some pruning sheers — my first ever — and had a go at them. I think I did pretty well, but we’ll see how many new blooms we get. 🙂

While trimming off the old blooms, I remembered some old thoughts I’d had regarding the whole concept of pruning: the idea that in order to grow, sometimes we need to cut back more than we think is necessary. Some of those leaves looked just fine to me, but I needed to prune them back to the first 5-patch if I wanted the bush to continue blooming.  During life coaching sessions, sometimes that same principle holds true. Parts of someone’s life may look just fine, but in order to invite the big blossoming, they still need some cutting out and reshaping.  I love how nature reminds us of the abundance of life — that we can remove parts that sap energy in preparation for the tremendous blooms in store for us. We need not fear some discipline or change. Giant, fragrant petals are on the way!

While pruning roses, I started thinking about a Garden Paradise, and quickly those thoughts turned to humanity’s attempts to return to that original Garden Paradise — our personal Eden. Of course, this reminded me of Schizandra and the Gates of Mu, because Schizandra embodies that potential. She’s a 13-year-old orphan with a cosmic destiny, and that destiny means awakening others to their true potential for bliss and transformation.

As synchronicity would have it, Schizandra arrived at just that moment. More precisely, proof of Schizandra arrived. Yes, I do mean proof: my very first “proof” copy of the paperback novel is now in my hands for review this weekend and release into the world next week:

Schizandra and the Gates of Mu

I made a late decision to switch from iUniverse to my own publication company, designer and interior formatting. Gwen Gades and Cathi Stevenson did such a beautiful job it made me cry! I’m so pleased to present Schizandra in her new duds. Anyone who would like an autographed copy before the book becomes available on Amazon and in bookstores, please click here.

After my hubby and I skimmed through the book, he decided we needed to celebrate by taking me to Seed. (I know, more garden imagery!) Seed is a totally vegan, mostly raw food restaurant in Santa Rosa, CA. They have weekly boxes of food, as well as a fab and ever-evolving menu. Today I brought home a zucchini marinara and rutabaga alfredo pasta duo with Caesar salad, some watermelon mango soup, portabello (eggplant) bacon cheezeburger and my very favorite, cacao-custard-caramel pie. Mmmm … mmm … feast at the Bruno’s. It’s not every day that a novel comes out about raw cacao, and I’ll only get to premier my first novel once. Stephen said it was time to live it up.

Many, many blessings and much love!

Laura Bruno

www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com

Sonoma County Moving Story

Many of you know that my husband and I have been planning a move around Summer Solstice 2009. We’ve known the date since January, but the location, ah, now that’s another story! For those of you who don’t know, Stephen and I have moved all over the West Coast since 2001. We’ve lived in Washington (Seattle and Vashon Island); Oregon (Ashland and Coos Bay), Nevada (two different relocations — Reno and twice at Lake Tahoe), New Mexico (Santa Fe and Las Vegas), Texas (Austin), Arizona (Prescott, Mesa, Payson and twice in Sedona), and California (two different times — in Monterey, San Luis Obispo and most recently in Sonoma County). For all those moves, you wouldn’t believe how many times we’ve almost moved places. We “break out the map” every few months.

Since Stephen’s a photographer and we both do so much writing, the travels benefit our creativity. Even so, we’re slowing down. We used to move every 2-6 months, but most recently we’re completing a 13-month lease in Petaluma. Before that we spent a full six months in Sedona. 🙂 In our search for a new spot, we considered everything from Bellingham, WA to San Diego, CA on the West Coast. We mentally revisited all our prior locales to see if any of them called us to return. We looked at Orange County, Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, even Hawaii and Catalina Island. Many sounded really nice, but nothing quite clicked. Still, we knew we weren’t staying where we live right now. 

A couple weeks ago,  Stephen and I were finalizing plans to return to Reno/Tahoe. It was after 10 p.m. and we sat talking on our little recliner chair. Just as we had almost completed our plans, he remembered a dream he’d had earlier that day. In the dream, I said, “Whatever you do, please don’t take me back to Reno. Please, please don’t take me back to Reno.”

We chuckled because I’ve always loved that area, but we do take our dreams seriously in the Bruno household! So, we agreed that if we found a property with x, y, z, a, b, and c “impossible” things, then we would simply move to a particular neighborhood I’d liked in Sonoma County. 

Just then, the phone rang. “Who’s calling this late?” we wondered. I looked at a Sonoma County area code and picked up the phone. What happened next still has us shaking our heads.

The caller had seen a post I’d left on a local forum the night before. I had, frankly, forgotten I’d even posted a question about that particular neighborhood in Sonoma County. I wanted to know the name of it, so that I could search for a 3 BR 2 BA house online. The person on the phone informed me that he had seen my post and hoped he wasn’t calling too late. He wouldn’t have, except that I had posted to the forum even later the night before. He wanted to let me know that he had a 3 BR 2 BA house available in that exact neighborhood in Sonoma County.

This wasn’t the only synchronicity. As the conversation unfolded, I learned that the house had all the things we wanted and more and that the landlords were rather famous authors. We started talking shop about novels, book promotion, and writing contests.

Stephen and I agreed to look at the place the following weekend. In the meantime, I emailed our potential landlords about how synchronous the encounter was for us. I mentioned the Reno dream and the fact that we had at just that moment decided to leave CA unless this specific property became available. The landlord with whom I spoke replied, “Synchronicity? Yes. Never before have I at 10:30 PM telephoned persons I had not met. But some kind of ‘Bali Hai’ called me to find you out there in the dark. In the way that you have envisioned a writer owning a home where you as writers might work, I have envisioned writers and artists who might take up such residence.” 

The address itself adds up to an 11:11, which readers of this blog and the soon-to-be-released Schizandra will also recognize as significant. Anyway, long story short, we visited the home two weekends ago and agreed to sign a year’s lease. In the process we ended up hanging out in a coffee shop in Sebastopol for two fun hours with our future landlords. We pick up the keys tomorrow for a move-in the day before Summer Solstice 2009.

For the privacy of all those involved, I’m only including the bare minimum of synchronicities here, but of all our moves, this one gets the prize. I did not even make a single phone call about a place. I had jokingly told Stephen back in April, “You know, I’m done. I am so tired of making phone calls about potential properties and potential towns. I just want our next move to find us!” Well, I guess it did, which leaves me one grateful lady. Here I am at Cafe Gratitude shortly after my 36th birthday back in May:

Guess it wasn’t my last “I Am Passionate” Pizza after all! I remember hugging all my Sonoma County friends that night thinking it might be the last time I see some of them for a long, long time. Stephen and I are both happy to move on to our next adventure … and also happy to keep it within a quick drive of our most recent ones. Cheers!

www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com

Henna for Hair

I just finished teaching an all-day Reiki Master Teacher certification workshop. Congratulations to the new Reiki Masters! We had a wonderful, information- and sharing-packed day, and one of the stranger observations was that occasionally my hair “turned” a different color during class. Purple, actually. Just for a few moments when I was talking about certain esoteric things. Did the sun hit it an odd way? Perhaps. Were the students seeing my aura? Maybe. That often does happen during Reiki classes. Once last year I was teaching a class on Atlantis and the students swore my hair momentarily turned blue.

I don’t have a “logical” explanation for any of this, since the lighting didn’t change in those moments, but I do get a lot of questions about my hair. People want to know how I get it to grow so long, how it stayed so healthy when we lived in the desert, what color IS it? Do I dye it? Do I curl it? Why is it straight on some days and super-wavy on others? Do I blow it dry? After class, I decided to blog-surf and saw that Kristen of http://kristensraw.blogspot.com had a recent post about going back to her natural brunette hue. Since I’ve felt nudged to post about hair for a few months and haven’t, her post, combined with the multiple class discussions about my weirdly illuminated hair convinced me that it was time to share a few things.

Laura Bruno in San Francisco

1 ) Yes, I use henna on my hair, but no, that’s not really why it’s red. I always had some red in my hair. My dad was a carrot top for the first two years of his life, and I must have inherited some of that natural coloring. Traditionally, though, my hair has always grown in extremely light blonde, then blended into a brownish-red.

I’ve always had a problem with knots. Not little tangles: big, huge, struck by lightning, scary witch’s knots. A friend in Reno advised me that I could curb some of the craziness by using henna, so I tried it in December 2006, dreaming of red-headed bliss. It did tame the knots, but my haircolor looked exactly the same as pre-henna. Nothing happened on the color frontier.

In February 2007, my now-ex-husband and I moved to Monterey, CA from Reno. The next morning, he said, “Woah, did you dye your hair last night?”

“No, why?”

“Go look in the mirror.”

When I did, I had flaming red hair. My skin color also looked several shades lighter. I thought it might be from the salt in the air, but it stayed red even when we returned to Sedona in October 2007. It took me quite a while to get used to this overnight shift of both skin tone and hair color, but eventually I did, and eventually the knots returned in all their witchy grandeur. I figured why not use henna again, since it really couldn’t get much redder? And so I did.

I still do every 4-8 weeks, depending on my mood or the level of knottiness. Using henna has meant I no longer go through 4-5 giant bottles of conditioner every month. I also like that it temporarily makes my hair feel thicker. (The reason it tames knots is because henna coats the hair shaft, plumping it up while conditioning it at the same time.) Ever since Monterey, my hair has become like a personal mood ring. It does seem to change color (by other’s observations). If you use henna, it can definitely reflect more red in direct sunlight, and mine does that, but I can’t really count henna as the sole explanation for why sometimes my hair looks brown and then I get really happy and it suddenly looks red. Or purple. Or blue. 🙂

2 ) Besides henna, what else do I do to care for my hair? Um, not much. I’m not a big brusher. I used to cry when my dad brushed my hair out as a girl, and old habits die hard. Back when I was traveling a lot, I once found my brush in my suitcase. It had sat there for 3 weeks and I hadn’t even missed it. I didn’t even notice it was gone! When I do brush, I use a wooden, flat Aveda brush, and I never brush when my hair’s really wet. I finger comb, do nothing, or wait until it’s mostly dry.

I don’t use a blow dryer unless I’m running really late or if I have recently henna’d and not gotten all the goop out of my hair. In that case, it can drip orange for a couple washes, so I will sometimes blow dry the ends to avoid having to clean up from the drips.

3 ) How do I keep my hair from breaking off? I’m sure the henna helps. I am also currently using shampoos by the Morrocco Method. They’re pricey and somewhat heavily fragranced with essential oils, but overall I like them. They are 100% raw and 100% vegan and natural, so I feel like it’s totally non-toxic hair care.

The shampoos don’t lather like regular shampoo, though, and I’ve been told by people who switched from more toxic products that they almost get the “no-poo” hair effect of having extremely greasy hair until their hair adjusts. I didn’t have that problem, but I have noticed that my hair does kind of clump together more, almost like it wants to curl into ringlets or big waves lately. I brush it more frequently since switching shampoos because I don’t want it to clump out and look greasy.

I don’t know if the clumping curls come from the Morrocco Method shampoos or from my many months of massive doses (6-10 grams / day)  of MSM. David Wolfe claims that MSM makes hair curlier, and I have to say I always had stick straight hair, but over the last few years and especially the last few months, it’s gotten much wavier.

4 ) How often do I wash my hair? Definitely not everyday. I usually go between 2-4 days between washes. In the desert it’s closer to 4; on a humid week, it will be closer to 2. The Morocco Method has all those essential oils in it, so hair doesn’t get stinky even when it still looks clean. Before Morocco Method, I just used to spritz a bit of lavender water or a little essential oil on my hair on the 2nd or 3rd day.

5 ) What about diet? Well, as I mentioned above, I currently take a lot of MSM. I take it for removing scar tissue, but I believe it has strengthened my hair and made it shinier. I follow a 90-100% raw vegan diet. Once in a blue moon, I’ll eat a bit of bee pollen. I take the Vitamin Code raw vitamins, B-12, chia seed in my smoothies, Jarrow’s Vegan Bone-Up, and lots and lots of greens, Vitamineral Green and currently also spirulina. If I remember, I sometimes take a little swig of the gluten-free, yeast-free Floradix because I eat so many antioxidants that sometimes my iron gets a bit low unless I’m on a cacao kick. I’m sure all of these things contribute to healthy, fast-growing, shiny hair.

6 ) What about hair loss? People ask me about this a lot, especially people new to a raw diet. Hair loss can come from lots of sources, including a lack of B-vitamins, especially B-5 (Panthenol) and B-12, since a deficiency of B-12 or folic acid could contribute to anemia. The scalp does not like anemia. Your hair is considered a luxury item in terms of cell nutrients. If you have anemia and hence low oxygen levels, guess what’s not getting leftover O2?

Hair loss can also occur due to vitamin A (beta-carotene) toxicity. Yes, on a plant-based diet, most people will not get too much viatmin A; however, as I explained in The Lazy Raw Foodist’s Guide and this post, it does sometimes happen with the use of lots of superfoods. Superfoods are “super” because they have huge antioxidant profiles. Occasionally, people get so high in beta-carotene that the liver starts acting like someone who’s on Accutane. Skin can dry and crack; hair can fall out. In big clumps. I’ve had this happen myself. It does grow back. You just can’t keep up those levels of beta-carotene indefinitely.

Sometimes hair falls out because of detoxification. Again, it will usually grow back as the detox clears. Sometimes hair falls out due to hormonal imbalance. This can occur in both men and women. Male pattern baldness almost always has a hormonal component. Many men find that when they start taking saw palmetto for their prostate health, their hair loss slows. A nice perk!

There are literally hundreds of things on the market promising faster growth and slower hair loss. Some work, some don’t  Some treat the root cause of problems; some work on the surface; a few are probably quite toxic. I’m not a doctor. Not a hair expert. I’m just sharing some things I’ve observed:

Essential fatty acids tend to help; MSM helps; hemp protein usually helps; Sun Warrior protein (highly absorbable) seems to help; Morrocco Method shampoos supposedly stimulate hair growth (my hair does seem to be growing faster, but this is totally anecdotal on my part; check out their site for photos); checking beta-carotene levels helps; staying on top of B-12, B-5, folic acid and iron helps; getting hormone levels checked can sometimes help; examining what hair represents for you gives some nice clues as to what’s happening and why.

7 ) What about cowlicks? Yep, got ’em. They’re crazy. They stick straight up. If you find something that works, let me know! LOL, my hair gets really crazy sometimes, and aside from changing my part, which only sometimes works, I haven’t found anything that helps. You’re on your own on this one.

8 ) OK, back to henna: isn’t it incredibly messy? Yep, and you’ll smell like hay or grass unless you mix it with essential oils or some kind of tea. I don’t know why, but I actually like that it’s a big, green goopy mess that I leave on for 4 hours. It creates a whole ritual and I know I’ll have that day to myself. It does take a long time to wash out. It does make your bathroom a big mess (but at least that means mine will get a good scrub down!), and it does change most people’s hair color.

9 ) Will henna turn my hair green? Not if you haven’t used artificial coloring or bleach on your hair, but if you have, then yes, it might.

If you have artificial coloring in your hair you need to cut it out, grow it out or otherwise wait 6-8 weeks until you have no fake dyes prior to henna-ing your hair. Please don’t mess with this; I have heard nightmare stories. I would not use a non-natural shampoo anymore anyway, but because of my henna, it’s not even an option on the table. I’m OK with red, purple or blue, but I don’t want green hair! You’re also not supposed to touch the henna with metal. I’ve messed up and accidentally used a metal spoon without incident, but the instructions are so insistent that I don’t recommend it. I honestly don’t know what might happen. I just usually remember to use a wooden spoon or plastic spatula.

The henna powder itself is green, but when warmed with water or tea, it begins to stain the hair shaft a reddish color. You can purchase different “colors” of henna, but really, there’s only one true henna and that’s red. All other “colors” of henna are actually dyes mixed with henna powder. Some may be natural, plant-based dyes, but if it says it only contains henna, but it will turn your hair black or brown or strawberry blonde, then you can bet there’s something else in the package.

10 ) What about black henna? Products marketed as black henna are extremely toxic and should not be used. If you want to turn your hair black using natural henna, you need to henna first and then follow it with an application of indigo powder. This will create a shiny black look. It is NOT the same as black henna.

11 ) Won’t henna stain my hands? Yep. Wear gloves. Henna has been used for thousands of years in the ancient art of mehndi. The red brown dye can create beautiful designs on the hands, feet, pregnant belly or anywhere else on the body.

Henna doesn’t adhere well to oily skin, so if you want to avoid staining yourself, use some kind of coconut oil, olive oil or other oil around the hairline, over the ears and on the neck. For the hands, you really need gloves. If you mix oil on your hands, the oil gets in your hair and the henna may not adhere well to the hairshaft. If you don’t wear gloves but do oil your fingernails, they will still probably turn orange because they’re so dry. Whereas the orange on your skin will eventually wash off, you’ll likely have orange nails until they grow out. It’s not terrible, but it does happen.

12 ) Is there a spiritual reason to henna? Traditionally, yes, henna is associated with the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance and prosperity. Ancient Egyptians used henna in rituals and for sacred body adornment. Henna is mentioned in the Bible — both for its intense fragrance and for its use by pre-Christian Jews. People today use henna during birth ceremonies, baby showers to honor the coming child, at yoga studios, to inscribe sacred symbols or chants on the body, and just for general nurturing.

I don’t know what’s in henna in terms of nutrients, but I do feel like using it alters something in my brain — in a good way. I feel more relaxed and receptive to intuitive perceptions (yes, even more than usual!); I do tend to make a ton of money the whole week after I henna my hair (it’s like money arrives in huge chunks all that week); I feel more mischievous in a fairy way; and overall, I just feel more in tune with my “goddess” self. The last observation may be because in terms of other self-care and fussy things, I’m kind of lacking, so my henna represents a conscious acknowledgment and celebration of that part of myself. In any case, yes, henna can be considered a spiritual practice.

13 ) I can’t think of any other frequently asked questions about my hair, but please feel free to ask away. I frequently hear from clients in Medical Intuitive sessions that they would like “better hair.” I’ve listed most of what I know here that works generally. More speicific details really apply in the case of your own personal symbolism of hair.

Many Blessings and Lustrous Locks to you!

Laura Bruno

www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com

 

Sugar Cravings, Salt and Minerals

During the summers while I was in college, I waited tables at an Italian restaurant. I enjoyed the people interaction and the exercise. Sometimes I walked the equivalent of three to five miles per day, carrying trays that weighed half as much as I did. While some people found this exhausting, the sustained weight and movement left me invigorated. The only problem occurred after a long shift. Rationally, I knew I had just burned a ton of calories, but physically, I no longer felt hungry. In fact, after serving salads, garlic breadsticks and all manner of Italian foods all day, I couldn’t bear to look at any food. What to do?

That’s when I discovered a sneaky trick for gaining (or in my case maintaining) weight: combine sugar with salt. A heaping bowl of Rocky Road or Heavenly Hash ice cream topped with pretzels guaranteed that I could eat not just one, but two or more bowls of ooey-gooey calorie-laden food even when I didn’t feel hungry. In retrospect, it’s a little appalling that I lived on ice cream and pretzels for two summers and considered this a means of supporting my health, but it taught me something important about sugar cravings.

Later, when I studied macrobiotics, I learned that sugar represents the most yin (expansive) food and salt represents the most yang (contractive) food. Prescription drugs, nightshades, coffee and tropical fruits are also highly yin, whereas meat and eggs are highly yang.  The body wants to find a balance between yin and yang, and this fact has implications for people trying to beat food cravings or the late night munchies. According to macrobiotics, a meat-heavy meal almost demands a glass of wine or a sweet dessert in order to rebalance the yang effects of the meat. If the meat contained a salty sauce, then multiple drinks and desserts might seem irresistable. Conversely, if someone gorges on candy — even agave-sweetened “healthy” candy — s/he might suddenly experience an irresistable urge for salty foods. If the salt gorging swings past the middle, then s/he needs more sweet. Meanwhile, in the course of this pendulum swinging, a person could consume as much as an extra day’s worth of calories.

Macrobiotics follows principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which considers uncooked food difficult to digest, cold and harmful. For this reason, a truly macrobiotic meal contains very little raw food — perhaps just a salad — and lots of “neutral” brown rice.  The principles seem incompatitible with a raw food diet, and many people don’t see the point of integrating the two approaches. Gabriel Cousens does a wonderful job of combining the two diets in his book, “Conscious Eating.” I highly recommend this classic for more detailed information on the cross-cultural connections between spirituality and food.

For the purposes of this article, though, I would just like to share some things I’ve noticed repeatedly in Medical Intuitive Sessions. In The Lazy Raw Foodist’s Guide, I mention salt as one of the potential excesses on a raw food diet. Even if people do not salt their food, high salt sources include: miso, tamari, seaweeds (sea vegetables), Nama Shoyu, and salt-fermented veggies like sauerkraut. Over the years, and especially recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of people have turned to a raw diet in order to eliminate cravings and yet they’re still having them. Big time. I get a lot of calls from people struggling with this issue, so I’d like to address a few things here. As always, I intende my posts for information and research springboards only, not as medical advice:

1 ) If you crave sugar or sweet foods (agave, juicy frutis, bananas, candy, cane sugar, rapadura, etc.) on a raw food diet, check your corresponding salt intake. Trying to eliminate sugar cravings while continuing to indulge in lots of salty foods creates an impossible challenge. The body seeks balance. If you want to reduce one extreme, you’ll find it much easier to reduce the other extreme at the same time. Celery contains lots of natural sodium, and celery juice or celery with almond butter can help bring that sweet/salty pendulum into smaller arcs.

2 ) Consider a Candida connection. The “yeastie beasties” crave sugar, pure and simple. You can have the best intentions in the world, and if you do not get that Candida in check, you’ll have a devil of a time trying to resist the call of candy, carrot or fruit juices, beets, and agave. I’ve written on Candida many times before, since it affects so many areas of life. My top picks for regaining control of your gut include: fermented foods with Body Ecology starters, Oil of Oregano; pau d’arco tea; MSM (gradually building up to higher doses); no fruit juices; and taking steps to move beyond perceived or habitual limitations. (Candida vibrates to the kind of victim that feels put upon by life circumstances or other people. That “poor me” attitude lets Candida thrive, which unfortunately means that you don’t.)

3 ) Look into mineral deficiencies. Years ago, I heard from Victoria Boutenko that fruits grown in calcium-rich soil taste sweeter than fruits grown in depleted soil. I experimented with adding calcium to my diet and found that I did crave fewer sweets when I ate more tahini or broccoli. Odd, but true.

Salt cravings often signal mineral deficiencies. Some people have found that the use of sole, a specific concentration of Himalayan sea salt diluted in water, helps not only salt cravings but also sugar cravings! This may come in part from the trace minerals and in part because it helps people off the sugar/salt pendulum. 

One of my clients effortlessly lost 20 pounds by adding a combination of sole and MSM plus pau d’arco tea to her daily supplements. She had tried to lose those 20 pounds for years with no success, but by getting the mineral imbalances under control, driving those minerals into her cells with the MSM and drawing upon pau d’arco’s antifungal properties, she found her cravings disappear. 

4 ) On a more metaphysical level, you might also consider the symbolic properties of sweetness and saltiness. In macrobiotics, the spleen is most associated with sweetness. Western medicine doesn’t have a clear sense of exactly what the spleen does, but in esoteric healing, the spleen marks an entry point of life force energy or divinely directly helaing energy. Craving sweetness sometimes happens when people feel they’ve missed their deepest calling or “sweetest” desire in life — that something, which makes life amazing and joyful. I also notice this pattern frequently in diabetics. I call it “the diabetic profile” because I see it so often. Not surprisingly, diabetics have a difficult time “receiving” sweetness on the physical level, too.

For saltiness, I always think of Jesus saying to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness , how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Harsh words. Yet many of my clients feel exactly this way — as though life has robbed them of their saltiness, their essence. I call this the “Candida profile” and not surprisingly many of these people bounce between salt and sugar cravings.

You might notice a commonality between these two symbolic descriptions: both emphasize some kind of spiritual component. In the case of sweetness, things like meditation, Tai Chi, Reiki (especially learning Reiki and receiving an attunement) can provide a sense of reconnection with the Divine, which helps jump start recovery. Giving permission to receive abundance and enjoy love also helps. In the case of saltiness, some in-depth soul searching about life path and the nature of resistance often helps move things more into balance.

Your body never betrays you. It always works to support the soul’s deepest longings. Listening to your body offers one of the best ways to rediscover misplaced joie de vivre. I wish you many blessings along the way.

www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com